heartoflesh
Puritan Board Junior
No, I'm not leaving.
I can't help but notice how quite a few folks, once they have joined an interent messageboard/forum, find it in thier best interests to leave that community, even to the point of physically preventing themselves from logging on, posting etc. I'm sure that those who do so have good reasons, and whatever it is, is none of my business.
I recall back when I first was introduced to this type of forum, about 6 years ago, and how I took everything so personally and would "resign", only to come back a month later. I also resigned a couple of times because I thought I was too addicted to it. On one board in particular I think I 'resigned" and came back 3 times!! :bigsmile: I guess those experiences taught me two main things about this medium. One is not to take anything too personally-- when your having a conversation with the entire world wide web you're going to get different opinions and unless your an inanimate object someone is going to disagree with you. The other main lesson was not to let a cyber-community take the place of my local, flesh and blood community. Not that you any of aren't flesh and blood-- you know what I mean. It is true that the types of conversations that we can get into here might be indeed rare in our local churches, and there is a place for this forum and others like it, but it should never overshadow the place of our physical, local community.
I'll be honest, I probably wouldn't go on here at all if it wasn't for the fact that I have a job which allows me moments of spare time inbetween calls where I can surf the net. I alternate between this, the newspaper and the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum. I almost never log on here when I'm at home (which is ironic since I'm at home right now) and I really wouldn't be dismayed in the least if this board disappeared. I'm sorry, but that's the truth. Notwhithstanding, I think it serves a wonderful purpose- but it's noblest aspirations can't do away with the fact that ninety percent of the time we're just joking around and socializing, talking about fishing, or else we're fiercely debating some secondary issue like church government or baptism (yes, that's right--it's a secondary issue). Now this is all good and fine, but it's certainly not essential to our walk with the Lord.
So, my dear friends, before you put in your resignation, just take a step back. If you're feeling addicted, don't log onto the board for a couple of weeks, or months. Don't go through what I went through, the leaving and coming back, leaving and coming back. Just take it with a grain of salt.
For those of you who may have resigned and are reading this: please come back, if you feel you are able to.
I can't help but notice how quite a few folks, once they have joined an interent messageboard/forum, find it in thier best interests to leave that community, even to the point of physically preventing themselves from logging on, posting etc. I'm sure that those who do so have good reasons, and whatever it is, is none of my business.
I recall back when I first was introduced to this type of forum, about 6 years ago, and how I took everything so personally and would "resign", only to come back a month later. I also resigned a couple of times because I thought I was too addicted to it. On one board in particular I think I 'resigned" and came back 3 times!! :bigsmile: I guess those experiences taught me two main things about this medium. One is not to take anything too personally-- when your having a conversation with the entire world wide web you're going to get different opinions and unless your an inanimate object someone is going to disagree with you. The other main lesson was not to let a cyber-community take the place of my local, flesh and blood community. Not that you any of aren't flesh and blood-- you know what I mean. It is true that the types of conversations that we can get into here might be indeed rare in our local churches, and there is a place for this forum and others like it, but it should never overshadow the place of our physical, local community.
I'll be honest, I probably wouldn't go on here at all if it wasn't for the fact that I have a job which allows me moments of spare time inbetween calls where I can surf the net. I alternate between this, the newspaper and the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum. I almost never log on here when I'm at home (which is ironic since I'm at home right now) and I really wouldn't be dismayed in the least if this board disappeared. I'm sorry, but that's the truth. Notwhithstanding, I think it serves a wonderful purpose- but it's noblest aspirations can't do away with the fact that ninety percent of the time we're just joking around and socializing, talking about fishing, or else we're fiercely debating some secondary issue like church government or baptism (yes, that's right--it's a secondary issue). Now this is all good and fine, but it's certainly not essential to our walk with the Lord.
So, my dear friends, before you put in your resignation, just take a step back. If you're feeling addicted, don't log onto the board for a couple of weeks, or months. Don't go through what I went through, the leaving and coming back, leaving and coming back. Just take it with a grain of salt.
For those of you who may have resigned and are reading this: please come back, if you feel you are able to.
